


Green Arrow

by Geek_and_Nina



Series: Curious Archer Shots [19]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Arrowverse au, Curious Archer - Freeform, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 17:17:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21019397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geek_and_Nina/pseuds/Geek_and_Nina
Summary: Margot knew that to save Star City, she would have to become someone else...something else. The Green Arrow.Snippets of argot and Aloce as Olicity





	Green Arrow

Alice found herself daydreaming at work and absently chewing on the end of her ink pen as she pondered the events of her life that had led up to her employment at West Consolidated. Only a handful of years before, she’d been a hacker with jet black hair… a shitty dye job, and an even worse girlfriend. Alice felt trapped by her job and by the front she put on for those around her but had to admit this was much better than her old life. All of those thoughts and feelings changed… her whole life changed when Margot West entered her cubicle, a sheepish and charming smile on her face.

“Oh, Margot… Margot West, hi. You’re here. In my office.” Alice found herself rambling and unable to make herself stop.

“Yes, that’s me. I’m Margot West.” Margot spoke carefully and slowly. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from openly grinning at how adorable she found the young woman who for some reason was ceaselessly speaking.

“Oh, right. You’re the boss now. I should have said ‘Ms. West’. You own the whole company. You could fire me. Oh, God, please don’t fire me.” Alice never hated herself quite as much as in this particular moment. 

Margot couldn’t hold back her soft chuckle, even as Alice bit into her own lip and punched herself in the thigh. “No, Ms.West was my mother, they called her the Wicked Witch in these parts as you likely know.” She sent a smirk Alice’s way and noted the other girl’s blush. Had the Margot from a few years before been in her stead, this conversation would have ended quite differently.

“Of course, but she’s dead. I mean, she drowned. You didn’t though, which is how you made it down here to the It department to listen to me babble. Which is going to end… now.” Alice pursed her lips, blushing furiously. “How can I help you?”

\-----/////-----

This was the first of the many painfully awkward conversations Alice endured during Margot West’s visits. Slowly, Alice felt her crush upon the other girl grow. These encounters and Margot’s good-nature towards Alice’s bumbling only made her crush deepen.

Much like everyone else Margot had ever loved, hated, or so much as spent more than five minutes along-side, trouble soon visited itself upon Alice Jones. Margot blamed herself; for the attraction, she had been doing her best to bury and for having returned to Star City at all. Something about the naivete she saw in Alice led her to an inexplicable pattern. Margot had dedicated herself to the defense of Star City. Suddenly, those feelings had changed to include the specific protection of Alice.

Margot swore to herself never to act on those feelings for so long as it would put Alice in danger. Despite her resolve, she found herself driving to West Consolidated and then gingerly walking to the back entrance, to the elevator there, having to use the railing of the elevator to hold herself up. Weakness had begun to permeate her limbs. Thankfully, she had managed to send off a text to one of her many assistants to pick her motorcycle up from the front of the building. The voices of her many teachers and mentors echoed in the back of her mind either berating or encouraging her to stay on her feet.

“Alice… Alice do you have a car?” Margot asked, half-stumbling into Alice’s cubicle and using the partition wall to hold herself up. “I need you to take me somewhere and to not ask any questions, okay?”

“Of course, Ms.West.” Alice answered before looking over at Margot. There was a thin sheen of sweat across Margot’s face and she was holding her jacket tightly against her abdomen. She could tell that Margot was doing her best to suppress any sign of pain.

“Give me that jacket.” Alice ordered, taking it from her without waiting on an answer, guiding Margot to move into her vacated seat. She grabbed her scissors from her desk, cut one sleeve and folded it into a square. Alice pressed against the wound and used the remnants of the jacket to tie the makeshift gauze pad tight to Margot’s abdomen.”There’s a back way down to the garage this way, come on.”

Margot realized distantly, beyond the fog of pain, that it was odd for an employee in IT to be skilled in emergency medicine. She allowed the small blonde woman to help support her weight. Alice was surprisingly strong despite her small stature. Alice apologized profusely as she thumped Margot’s head against the roof of the car. She eased the injured girl farther into the backseat. Of course, because she couldn't help but be herself, Alice fell as she eased the other woman back, barely catching herself before causing Margot any more harm.

After an awkward chuckle on both of their parts, Alice made her way to the driver’s seat and began to follow Margot’s directions. She grew more and more concerned as she watched Margot continue to weaken. Alice struggled with helping the injured woman stay upright after arriving at the club Margot owned. It was practically deserted and no one paid them any mind as Margot hoarsely gave her the passcode to the hidden elevator.

Alice tried to come up with some reasonable explanation for all of Margot’s odd requests over the past few weeks, and what appeared to be an actual underground lair. She put those thoughts away for a while. “Okay, we’re here now. What’s next? Margot, what do I do now?” she asked the other woman as blood soaked through her makeshift bandages.

Just as unconsciousness began to take her, Margot pointed at an old chest; painted a shade of green so dark it looked almost black. Alice fought Margot’s dead weight onto the table on the well-lit platform in the middle of the room. She rushed to the box, lifted the heavy lid and searched within. In her rush, it took but a moment to find the box taped to the lid case, marked with a red taped cross.

She yanked it off, then rushed back to Margot’s side. Alice had no idea of what was inside but prayed to everyone she could think o that this would help.

There were no instructions inside the box, but Alice knew enough to pack the bundle of herbs she found inside into the gaping wound on Margot’s side. The girl’s face screwed up in pain. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. This will feel better soon. I promise.” Alice finished packing the wound, bound it with the bandages she retrieved from the kit, then sat down to wait. “At least, I hope so.”

She held Margot’s hand. Alice knew that she would want to wake up to a friendly face and someone willing to hold her hand if their roles were reversed. When she looked away from Margot’s face, now with a moment to think without all the adrenaline, the pieces of this puzzle began to fall into place. The large panel of computers around the platform they were on… and the green hooded suit that stood on a mannequin against the wall, this made the realization much easier. 

“Oh, shit. Oh, shit-ohshitohshitohshitohshit.” Alice muttered rapidly to herself as she continued to look around. There was a large, worn, and wooden forest green longbow laying across the desk. A rack of razor-edged arrow stood by, ready to be fired by Margot’s expert hands. Alice could feel the rough calluses across her palms when she held Margot’s hand in her own. “You’re the Hood. You’re the one who saved me… and shot arrows in all of those terrible businesspeople. You… you’re a killer.”

“I don’t kill willy-nilly. Only the worst people. The ones who have betrayed and failed this city.” Margot’s eyes clenched shut in pain, as she forced her way to sit up. “You did well here. I probably would have died if you hadn’t acted so quickly and smartly. There’s a med-pack in that top drawer over there. It has more traditional kinds of medical supplies.”

“Oh, over here below your collection of _arrows_?” Alice asked pointedly, but still slid the rolling chair she was seated on over to grab the case.

“I owe you an explanation and an apology.” Margot sat up a bit taller, set her shoulders once more, and took a deep breath as Alice’s careful hands began to dress the packed wound. Alice’s expression was more serious than Margot had seen before. It gave her a decidedly different feeling than the bumbling and adorably awkward girl she had gotten used to.

“I’m listening, please do go on.” Alice beckoned for Margot to continue, a bit more hurt in her eyes than Margot would have expected, her eyes even with Margot’s injury and the rest of her well-defined and scarred abdominal muscles. She bit the inside of her cheek to make herself focus on what she was doing. Even as she listened to Margot's explanation, finishing her work on the injury, as the wounded girl began to speak she began to doodle, in sharpie, on the counter as she listened. Her mind raced with thoughts of what was going on around her and the possible consequences that could befall them both because of Margot’s… Robin Hood’s crusade. She decided to see this through despite her better judgment.

“Well, no matter what you’ve just said, you have made it perfectly clear that you aren’t capable of doing this all on your own. You need help, but I don’t know if I will be capable of doing that knowing I’m helping you to kill people. Everyone draws a line somewhere and I guess that’s mine.” Alice swallowed hard and finished her doodle.

“You have yourself a deal.” Margot extended her hand out to Alice to shake on it. “All of my bad guys will be delivered mostly intact to the SCPD whenever possible. Now, I have the basics here, but I will deem you the authority on what else would be necessary for the aid of the cause.” Margot reached into her pocket, opened her wallet and placed a heavy, black, metal card into Alice’s hand.

\-----/////-----

“These were a good idea, but please do your best to keep from distracting me. What I do requires immense focus.” Margot, under the guise of Robin Hood, requested, touching the button in her Hood suit that allowed her to communicate with Alice in the lair beneath the club Verdant.

“You know I _am_ a genius after all. It is nice to be there in you… with you, I mean.” Alice bit her lip harshly at the slip. “Anyway, the police scanner is showing a possible B and E two blocks down from West Consolidated. Right up your alley.”

“I’m on it. Thank you for all of this, Al…” Margot began to say Alice’s name but caught herself at the last minute. “Start thinking up a code-name. I don’t want either of our real names used over an unprotected channel. Make sure it’s something cool.”

“Awh, you know I would do almost anything to you… I mean, for you.” Alice almost pulled her headset off to throw it across the room. She was furious with herself. It was good that no one was with her in Verdant,her face almost glowed she was blushing so hard. Alice swore to herself never to speak again unless it was absolutely necessary. This promise lasted ten minutes.

\-----/////-----

“Something terrible is about to happen isn’t there? There’s a bomb, a cloud of noxious gases, or a plague of some kind of vampires. I can tell by the look on your face you think we’re all about to die.” Alice said, turning in her swivel chair to get Margot's attention as she shot tennis balls out of the air one right after the other. “Tell me. I deserve to know.”

“It’s poison actually. Kind of. A biological agent slipped into a shipment of bad Vertigo. It’s going to turn all the users in Star City into blood-crazed, rage monsters. Then it will be transmitted by bodily fluids, changing the very nature of human DNA. I’m afraid, I am not smart enough to find a way to fix this. I am many things, my dear Alice. A biochemist isn’t one of the many titles I hold.” Margot regretfully gave her the answers she asked for, turning the pitching machine off and using her discarded t-shirt to wipe the sweat from her face as she spoke.

“Put your shirt back on. I can’t focus when all of _that_ is on display.” Alice massaged the bridge of her nose. She tried to keep herself from watching as Margot pulled the loose-fitting and incredibly thin t-shirt over her head. For once, Margot didn’t quietly chuckle at her.

“I don’t want you to think, Alice. I want you to run. This fight… I won’t be able to face it unless I know you are somewhere safe. All of my work here is about to be undone, my family has all either died, left me, or turned against me. You are the only person in Star City I care about.” Margot dropped a red pen into the glass Alice kept them in and leaned over the young woman in her seat. She caressed Alice’s cheek with the backs of her fingers.

“No, I am my own person. I make my own decisions.” Alice stood and crossed her arms over her chest. She felt very small in front of the vigilante known as Robin Hood but held her ground. It is incredibly unfair of you to use my feelings for you against me and I assure you that I will make you pay later. You don’t get a choice in the matter. I am staying here, with you, until this done.”

“You aren’t fair to me either. You weren’t supposed to convince me to fall for you. You weren’t supposed to be so brave, and strong, and kind. I wasn’t kidding when I said that I cared about you.” Margot stepped closer once more, testing the waters.

Alice placed her hands just over Margot’s collarbones. “We will get through this. Once again, you have forgotten just how brilliant I am. Let me make a couple of calls. Some even _smarter_ people owe me favors.” She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and turned to go. As she stepped away, Alice changed her mind. She fisted the hem of Margot’s shirt, kissed her fiercely, then left her standing; completely blind-sided.

\-----/////-----

Alice entered Team Hood’s headquarters to find Margot using her bow as though it were a sledgehammer. She wrecked everything she saw, tears streaming down her face, and bellowing at the top of her lungs. Alice knew there was nothing she would be able to do to calm her and leaned against the doorframe to wait her out. Eventually; Margot broke her bow across her knee, tossed the pieces, and sat down amongst the shards of glass on the platform. 

Alice went to Margot immediately, and unable to get her to unclench from around her own limbs, Alice sat behind her own personal superhero. Her arms wrapped around Margot’s torso and squeezed as hard as she possibly could until the other woman stopped hyperventilating.

“You are okay, Margot. _We_ are okay.” Alice spoke quietly. “Together we’ll fix this. Rebuild everything that has been taken from us and clear your name.”

Margot didn’t respond verbally, but she did reach up and hold onto one of the arms wrapped around her. She leaned back into Alice and let her support her weight. The exhaustion from having gone into full rage mode settled into her muscles and left her feeling weaker than she had in a long time. Margot was glad that despite her protests and her fury, Alice had stuck around and was quite literally holding her up.

“You can’t keep pushing me away, Margot. We’ve discussed this. I am a grown woman who makes her own decisions and I _want_ to be here.” Alice insisted. She combed Margot’s hair away from her face with her fingers, careful to avoid the multitude of cuts and bruises.

“I can because it’s necessary. This is what’s best for you, for me, and for this city. Being around me, with me… close to me. It has been really, really nice, but I don’t want you to be in danger because of me. I can’t handle that.” Margot turned slightly. She could see now that her Robin Hood had been beaten badly.

“I knew that when I signed up for this. What the two of us working together looks like, that’s up to you, but you know how I feel. It’s time for you to decide how you feel.” Alice said firmly, tracing with one finger the graffiti she had added to the desk where she always worked. “If you feel the same way about me… and I think that you do, you need to tell me soon. It’s been a year of me here as Overwatch and that stoic act of yours isn’t working for me anymore.”

“When I let you in on all of this, even the very first time that I went to you for help, I knew I was making a mistake. People around me get hurt. People I allow myself to love… they get killed. I do love you, enough that I want better for you.” Margot sighed heavily. “Especially now that everyone thinks Robin Hood is a mass murderer.”

“I chose to work with you. Your side is where I choose to be on any given day, and I don’t plan to allow you to take that away from me.” Alice took a step back. “I don’t care about your worry for my safety. I can protect myself. I don’t care about my professional reputation, no one knows that I work here anyway. I am here because this is what I want and I am very tired of having to repeat myself.”

Margot’s eyes widened and she took another step away from Alice, anxiously running her hands through her hair. Alice noticed that there was a streak of blood left there from Margot’s busted knuckles. She crunched through the glass to the drawer with the ever-expanding emergency medicine kit. Alice began to clean and then wrap Margot’s hands. The exhausted, but still strong and steady girl met Alice’s eyes almost tenderly as she gently pulled the bandage tight.

“You really think we’ve got this?” Margot asked, striding anxiously around the room she had just devastated. “I’m not as confident in this endeavor as I once was.”

“As long as we stick together, listen to one another, and _believe_ in one another; I really think we will.” Alice said with a soft smile, reaching out to grab Margot’s arm and to hold her still for a moment. She looked into Margot’s eyes evenly and with a deep level of emotion, she didn’t even know she had. “I know it’s probably cheesy sounding, but if it’s the two of us, we can do this.”

Margot’s expression grew serious and gentle as she stared into Alice’s eyes. For a moment Alice thought Margot was going to kiss her, her heartfelt as though it stopped out of sheer anticipation. Alice’s eyes began to close slowly. When she opened them again, Margot had stepped away and began cleaning up the mess she’d made of their headquarters. Alice didn’t know what to say.

\-----/////------

“This is it, either the salvation of Star City or the end of us all. I want you to know… I don’t regret any of it; any of the choices I’ve made since coming home because they all led me here to you.” Margot pulled Alice closer and kissed her deeply, almost certain they weren’t going to make it. When she pulled away, tears streamed down her face, smearing the oil paint used instead of a mask to hide her eyes. Alice reached up to wipe some away, leaving her fingers dyed green, barely holding back her own tears.

“You know that I’ve cared for you since you first entered my cubicle. Since then, I have grown to love you. I have never once stopped. I don’t think I ever would. If we live through this, I promise you that I won’t. You are the best adventure I could have ever hoped for. No regrets.” Alice promised and buried her face in Margot’s shoulder as she reached down to cut the wire.

\-----/////-------

“I have to stop. I am hurting this city more than I am helping it. I am tired of putting you in constant danger just because we love one another. Alice, I want a life with you… to get married someday, have kids, by some miracle, grow _old_ with you. If we keep this up I’ll be lucky to reach thirty-five. Does that make me terrible?” Margot asked, still wearing her Robin Hood suit, bow across her lap, and a halfway desperate expression on her face.

“No, feeling that way doesn’t make you terrible. It makes you human… more human than most who know you believe you to be. However, I doubt that you would be _happy_ if you left the superhero life behind. This…” Alice gestured to the headquarters around them. “is a part of who you are and I don’t want you to give it up for me or because of us. When I said that I wanted to be with you, I meant all of you.”

“You know that this isn’t possible without you, right? I would be completely lost. Adrift in a sea of my own angst, self-hatred, and anger. You keep me tethered to this world and I have no idea what I would do without you.” Margot picked up one of Alice’s hands and held it against her heart, smiling that soft smile that always made Alice’s heart hurt. All of Margot’s usually pent up and repressed emotions showed clearly through vibrant green eyes.

“Of course, I know. You need me just as much as I need you. That’s how this partnership works. That’s how any relationship works, my dear Robin. Now, one other thing you said did catch my attention…” Alice began to tease, pulling Margot’s hand back and kissing her knuckles. “You mentioned something about wanting to marry me?” 

“Yeah, I guess I did say that.” Margot sighed heavily. “I was emotional and rambling, but I did mean every word. I want to marry you one day and I do plan to ask you formally someday.”

“Do you want to hear what I plan on saying when you _do_ ask me, or do you want to wait and probably still not be surprised?” Alice asked, stepping closer to Margot and fitting herself against the other woman. “We’ve lived through a lot together, survived a lot and I am looking forward to everything else we will do and see together. Everything you mentioned before, we are going to have eventually. We’ll get there. You just need to have a little faith.”

As she spoke, Margot looped her arms around Alice’s neck and smiled softly as she listened to her lover. Alice looked her up and down with a wry grin as she began to unzip her leather jacket. She stepped even closer into the circlet of Margot’s arms and hugged her tightly, just letting the other woman hold her. It had been a while since the couple had allowed themselves to just _be_with one another and they swore silently to do so more often.


End file.
